Thanks to bundling free AAA video games with its Radeon HD graphics cards, Advanced Micro Devices has gained substantial traction on the channel market. In a bid to further leverage the success in the channel, AMD intends to offer free copies of popular video games with select premium A-series accelerated processing units (APUs).

Starting from April 18, AMD will provide a free code to download SimCity from Origin with the purchase of select AMD A8 and A10 accelerated processing units, reports HardwareLuxx.de web-site. Given that casual gamers do not necessarily play shooters or racing titles, the offering of SimCity with hybrid microprocessor products seems to make a lot of sense. In the future the company may expand this bundle with new titles or offer a different game.

By providing free video games with its AMD Radeon HD graphics cards and AMD A-series APUs, the company attracts attention of gamers to its products. Thanks to the campaign, many gamers will learn that AMD’s A-series Fusion chips offer better performance in video games in case integrated graphics is used than comparable solutions from Intel Corp. In addition, the gamers will clearly receive the message that AMD is all about gaming, which clearly adds the value to the brand. Finally, although AMD’s hardware solutions are in many cases not the fastest on the market, free software can greatly improve the value of add-in-boards or chips, thus boosting sales.

At present, AMD provides free BioShock Infinite, Crysis 3, Devil May Cry, FarCry 3, Sleeping Dogs and Tomb Raider with the purchase of select Radeon HD 7800- and Radeon HD 7900-series graphics cards. With the addition of SimCity to select A-series Fusion APUs, AMD expands the Never Settle bundle beyond core gamers to casual gamers, which will further strengthen its position on the channel market.